The Grove Plantation House

Grove House,front view, across Alexander Pond. Credit: USFWS

The
area now known as the Grove Plantation was originally a land grant to
Robert Fenwick in 1694. It has had many owners through the years, unlike
most plantations which belonged to the same family for numerous generations.
From 1695 until 1825, the property changed hands nine times. In 1825,
George Washington Morris purchased the land and named it Grove Plantation.

George
Washington Morris, son of Ann Barnett Elliott and Col. Lewis Morris, was
born in 1796 and married Maria Evans Whaley from Edisto. His parents owned
large tracts of land, including a plantation directly across the river
from what is now known as Grove Plantation. He built the Grove House about
1828. It is built in the late-Federal-period plantation style of architecture
and has the unusual feature of polygonal rooms and projecting symmetrical
polygonal bays. G.W. Morris died on August 22, 1834, leaving his wife,
a son, and three daughters. After his death, his wife, Maria, kept control
of the Grove, and later purchased a schooner, with which she transported
freight for her neighbors. By 1837, she had not only paid off her husbands
debts, but she also had the house plastered. In 1839, she installed a
threshing machine and by 1841, she had a housekeeper and a governess in
her employ in addition to her overseer.

G.
W. Morris' son, George Jr., was not a good business manager, and from
the time his mother passed the management of the plantation to him until
the time of his death, he built up huge debts. After his death, the plantation
was sold to John Berkely Grimball in 1857.

John
Grimball was married to Margaret Ann (Meta) Morris, G. W. Morris' niece,
and owned the adjacent plantation, Pinebury. He combined Pinebury and
the Grove into one large property and the family moved into the Grove
House early in 1858. During the War Between the States, John, Meta and
the 5 younger children went to Spartanburg. The 5 oldest boys were fighting
in the war and John Grimball made numerous trips to check on the plantation.
Both Pinebury and the Grove were sites of military activity and the Grove
House was at one time occupied by Confederate troops. By 1866, Meta had
to sell clothes and ornaments just to get food. Since the Grove was considered
abandoned, it was confiscated. On January 24, 1866, J. Berkeley Grimball
made application to the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands
for restoration of his property. Because he took the amnesty oath of loyalty
to the United States, he was able to regain ownership of the Grove and
Pinebury. After the war, John Grimball was unable to make his mortgage
payments on the Grove. Therefore the land reverted back to G. W. Morris'
heirs, Josephine M. Porter & Sabina Ann Morris in 1870.

After
that, the property changed hands numerous times until, it was purchased
by Owen Winston in 1929. President of Brooks Brothers, Winston did a restoration
of the house. He is also probably the one who had the outbuildings put
in.

The
plantation once again had several owners until Thompson Brown purchased
it in 1930. The Brown family used the Grove as a winter vacation residence
and hunted waterfowl & deer. The plantation was also a place where
Mr. Brown’s daughter, M. T. Could recuperate from polio. Between
1934 - 1951, the Browns planted pecan, persimmon, cedar, palmetto, magnolia,
and azaleas around the house. In 1947, the SC Power Company ran power
lines to the house.

R.
Carter Henry purchased the Grove in 1964. The Henry’s did an extensive
renovation on the house. They changed the stairwell in the foyer to an
open design. They also put the duck tiles around the fireplace in the
conference room. In addition, they did extensive renovations to the outbuildings.

Mr.
Henry sold the Grove to A. Leigh Baier in the early 1970's. During the
Baier family's ownership, numerous rice field trunks (water control structures)
were rebuilt or replaced and many of the dikes around the rice fields
were repaired. Mr. Baier sold the Grove to Margaret B. Hendricks, who
owned the plantation until The Nature Conservancy purchased it in 1991.

The
US Fish & Wildlife Service purchased the Grove 1992 and designated
it as the ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge. The Grove Plantation House
is one of few antebellum mansions in the ACE Basin area to survive
the Civil War. Former owners ensured it would be preserved by placing
it on the National Register of Historical Places. Another extensive renovation
was done on the house in 1996 - 1997. Today it houses the offices of the
US Fish and Wildlife Service's ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge.

Photos above were taken when the house was decorated for the 2002 SC Council of Garden Clubs Tour of Homes. Credit: USFWS